


Broken, messed up heart

by Anonymous



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, F/F, F/M, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-21
Updated: 2016-08-21
Packaged: 2018-08-10 05:08:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7831504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stephanie Brown had terrible luck with soulmates. The first problem is that she doesn't have one. The second is that she keeps falling in love anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken, messed up heart

**Author's Note:**

> so in this au, people get a mark on their wrist that's either red (romantic) or blue (platonic). There's no name attached, but you *know* who it is once you meet them.
> 
> edit: I changed the end a little, so if you read it before the change: it's a lil diffrent. if you haven't read it before, I like this ending much better

Soulmarks can _change._ It’s one of the first things kids are taught about them. First, soulmarks indicate who you’re destined to be with. Then, if you go left instead of right, if your flight gets canceled, if your soulmate dies in a car crash, your soulmark can change. It’s the little things that change it. Most people are terrified their soulmark will change.

 

Stephanie Brown wants hers to change more than she wants anything in the world, because she doesn’t have one.

 

And if she doesn’t have one, then maybe she’ll end up like her parents.

 

Maybe she’ll marry someone she doesn’t love.

 

Maybe he’ll turn out to be evil.

 

Maybe _she will._

 

\----

 

Ever since Steph learned about soulmates, and that she didn’t have one, she wanted one. She knew her parents weren’t soulmates. She knew they weren’t, and she knew she needed to have one. She was desperate. As she got older, she started doing stupid stuff on purpose, just to see if making a bad choice would change anything, and she’d meet her soulmate.

 

\----

 

She puts on a cape and costume, she follows her dad around, she tips off freaking _Batman_ , and she still doesn’t have anyone. Her wrists are still frustratingly bare.

 

\----

 

He kisses her, a spur-of-the-moment decision, she can tell, when he pulls away. It’s her first kiss, probably his, too.

 

“What was that?” she hisses.

 

“Um,” Robin stammers. “Um. A kiss?”

 

“But we aren’t--we aren’t soulmates!” she says, sounding a little hysterical to her own ears.

 

“D-do we have to be?”

 

“ _Yes,”_ she says. He takes a step back.

 

“I just thought--you liked me,” he says, and he sounds wounded. Steph wants to tear at her hair, but she still has dignity.

 

“Of course I like you, but we can’t--”

 

“I like you too,” Robin says. “So I thought--for a little bit--”

 

“Are you suggesting we--we _practice?”_ Steph asks, incredulous. “Like, practice kissing and stuff?”

 

“Yeah,” Robin says, sounding more confident and nodding wildly. “Nothing--nothing committed, no boyfriend or girlfriend labels--” He blushes wildly when he says this. It’s kinda cute. Steph wonders if kissing him sometimes would be that bad a thing.

 

“Okay,” she says and his mouth falls open a little.

 

“Okay?”

 

“Yeah,” she says. “We can be kissing buddies or whatever.”

 

“Okay,” he says, sounding relieved, and Steph’s sure it’s weird, a weird situation, but she leans over and presses her lips to his anyway. It’s messy, and awkward, and she pulls away, giggling, and he laughs too, and Steph falls in love, right then and there.

 

\----

 

Steph’s laying back in her bed, reading her history textbook, when the phone rings. She lunges for her phone, sees that it’s Tim, and picks up.

 

“Yeah?” she asks.

 

“I found him!” Tim says, sounding breathless and excited. She’s so glad to hear his voice. He’s been away for a few weeks, and she’s missed him more than she thought she would.

 

“You found who?” she asks. He laughs into the phone, sounding giddy.

 

“My soulmate!” he says and she freezes.

 

“W-what?” she asks.

 

“I found my soulmate!” he says again. “His name is Kon and he’s Superman’s clone and he’s my _soulmate!”_

 

“Oh,” Steph says. “T-that’s good.” Her voice doesn’t shake, and Tim can’t see her lift up her hand to wipe away tears at the corners of her eyes. “Is he everything you thought?”

 

“Yeah,” Tim says. “Yeah. He’s perfect.” And Steph wonders if he’s blushing, over the phone, and if Kon can hear him, if Kon’s in the same room.

 

“I’m so happy for you,” she manages. And she _is_ happy for him, because she wants him to be happy, but that doesn’t mean her heart isn’t breaking.

 

“Now all we have to do is find your soulmate,” Tim says, and Steph’s free hand goes straight to her wrist, the one that’s blank. She wears a bracelet over it, so nobody asks questions. Tim has no idea that she doesn’t have a soulmate.

 

“Yeah. Maybe,” Steph says. “I should go. You go hang out with Kon.”

 

“My soulmate,” Tim says, and he sounds _so happy,_ and Steph blinks away more tears.

 

“Bye,” she says.

 

“Bye. See you later!” And he hangs up, and Steph curls up on her side, and stares at her history textbook on the bed next to her, and she tries not to cry.

 

\----

 

“Have you found your soulmate yet?” The question surprises Steph. She looks up at Batman. He’s at the computer, his cowl down, typing something. She was wrapping her wrist after training.

 

“Why?” she asks, warily.

 

“I need to know if you have weaknesses,” he says. “So we can account for them.” That sounds so cold--like her soulmate is her weakness, like she shouldn’t have one--but then he remedies his statement. “Most people would do anything for their soulmates. If a villain finds out about them, they can kidnap them and hold them against you. Honestly, telling me protects your soulmate as well as yourself.”

 

And that makes sense, sort of, so she sighs and says, “No soulmate.” He turns to look at her, and analyzes her face, she can see it, then he turns back to the computer.

 

“Yet or ever?” he asks.

 

“Ever,” she admits, though she’s not sure why. She’s never told anyone before, and only recently has Bruce been even remotely accepting of her.

 

“Well,” Bruce says. “These things change.”

 

“Have you--have you found yours? Do you have one?” Bruce pauses from his hands flying over the keys.

 

“Yes,” he says. “I’ve found him.” _Him,_ okay, so the Batman’s gay, at least partially. Steph didn’t have him pegged as someone into guys, but her gaydar isn’t entirely accurate.

 

(Tim is a good example of that.)

 

“Who is it?” she asks, curiosity burning in her stomach.

 

“It doesn’t matter,” he says, and it sounds--off, like his perfect control has wavered a little.

 

“It kind of _does,”_ Steph says. “It matters to you.”

 

“Not to him,” he says and Steph’s taken aback.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“He doesn’t know,” Bruce whispers. She can still hear it over the silence in the Batcave. “Some aliens don’t have soulmarks.”

 

Steph wonders how that conversation went down. She doesn’t say that.

 

“I’m sorry,” she says. “That’s terrible.” Because she’s had a broken heart before. It’s not fun.

 

“I’m fine,” Bruce says, and he goes back to typing. Steph recognizes the subject as closed.

 

\-----

 

“Do you have a soulmate?” Steph asks, swinging her legs and leaning her head on the counter. Her cheek squishes under her.

 

“I have a platonic soulmate, Miss Stephanie,” Alfred says, not even pausing in his cleaning. “Master Bruce.”

 

“Oh,” Steph says. “I don’t have a soulmate.”

 

“You’ll find someone,” Alfred says. “I, myself, did not have a soulmate until Master Bruce’s parents were shot. I was not young, then.”

 

“Hm,” Steph says. She doesn’t want to be alone until she’s fifty years old, though. She’s sure it worked out fine for Alfred, but.

 

“You’ll find someone,” Alfred says again, and Steph wants to believe him.

 

\----

 

Steph falls in love a second time.

 

Cassandra Cain is beautiful, and amazing, and funny, and she’s so nice to Steph, and Steph can’t help but fall in love again. Her mind yells at her, yells again and again, to remember what happened with Tim, who she can barely look at. She can’t, not without remembering her heartbreak. She can’t look at Kon, either, because he aided in breaking her heart.

 

(She doesn’t blame them, it just makes her chest ache and her mind sad.)

 

And she remembers the heartbreak, and she remembers the pain, and so she never says anything. She’ll have to have her heart broken from afar.

 

\----

 

“Are you and Oracle soulmates?” Steph asks, leaning on her elbows and looking over the city. Dick doesn’t startle, doesn’t make any move to prove he hasn’t been expecting the question. He releases a breath of air, slowly drawn out.

 

“Sometimes,” he says. She turns to face him.

 

“What does _that_ mean?” she asks.

 

“Technically we are,” Dick says. “But we need to take breaks from each other. And Starfire--Tamaraneans have many soulmates. She and I are soulmates, sometimes. And sometimes Canary and Arrow’s breaks are at the same time as mine and O’s, and O and Canary are soulmates, then.”

 

“That doesn’t make sense,” Steph says, trying to riddle out how someone can switch between soulmates without actually switching.

 

“It doesn’t,” Dick agrees, and he leans back on his hands. “But it does.”

 

\----

 

Cass hands her the Batgirl suit--and she wants _Steph,_ of all people, to be Batgirl, and Steph’s staring at her, confused, and Cass smiles.

 

“It’s your turn,” she says, like it’s been predetermined.

 

“Who will you be?” Steph manages to ask through her shock. Cass shrugs.

 

“Don’t know,” she says. “I’ll figure it out, while I’m gone.”

 

“You’re leaving?” Steph asks, and her mind is blanking, and she’s not sure what’s going on.

 

“Not for long,” Cass says. “I’ll come back.”

 

It’s a lie. Cass might be gone forever, and they both know it. So Steph steps up, and she tucks her new suit under her arm, and she brings her lips to Cass’s. Cass’s hand skims across Steph’s cheek, her jawline, then Steph steps back.

 

“I’m sorry,” she says immediately.

 

“I am too,” Cass says. She turns away, towards the edge of the roof, and Steph knows she will jump off the side. Before she does, she turns back and faces the new Batgirl. “I wish it could have been you,” she says, then she leaps and Steph runs to the side, and Cass has vanished.

 

\----

 

“Blondie,” a voice says, and Steph half turns to see Jason, standing there with his hood under his arm, a red domino mask still on his face.

 

“Hey,” she says.

 

“What are you doing here?” She’s on the roof to his apartment building. She knows he comes up here a lot. She might as well be inside his house.

 

“Thinking,” she says.

 

“Okay,” he responds, then he comes and sits next to her, putting his helmet on the other side of him. “What are you thinking about?” He lights a cigarette.

 

“Soulmates,” she says, and he splutters.

 

“I’m not--crap. I’m not yours, right?” Steph laughs.

 

“No,” she says. “I don’t have one.”

 

“Oh,” he says.

 

“Do you?”

 

“Yeah,” he says. He puffs out a bit of smoke into the night air.

 

“You found them?”

 

“Yeah,” he says again. “Hey, princess, you ever fallen in love with someone before?”

 

“I don’t have a soulmate,” she says. “I just said that.”

 

“That’s not what I meant,” he says. Steph sighs.

 

“I know,” she says. “And yes. Twice. They both--they both had people.”

 

“Well, that’s life,” Jason says, and he sounds bitter. “People having other soulmates.” She turns to look at him.

 

“Who’s your soulmate, Jason?” she asks. He stares out at the city.

 

“I hate Superboy, did you know that?” he says finally. “Hate his guts.”

 

“Oh,” Steph breaths. “Oh, Jason.”

 

“I don’t need your friggin sympathy,” Jason growls.

 

“When I was fifteen years old,” Steph says, ignoring him. “I got a phone call from the boy I was in love with. And do you know what he said? He said, ‘Guess what. I found my soulmate’. He said, ‘His name’s Kon and he’s perfect’. I said, ‘I’m so happy for you’. And do you know what he said? He said, ‘Now let’s find your soulmate’.”

 

“And you don’t have one,” Jason says. Steph nods. “And he just broke your heart.” Steph nods again. “Sometimes I hate that boy.”

 

“I couldn’t look at him,” Steph says. “It hurt too much.”

 

“Why do you think I try to kill him?” Jason asks, and he laughs, and it’s a bitter sound, and Steph puts her hand on his. He flips their hands around, linking their fingers together. Steph sighs. 

 

“Why are all of us screwed up?” she asks.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“I don’t have a soulmate, yours has a different soulmate, Cass can’t find hers, Dick has to take breaks from his, who the hell knows about the new Robin, and B--well.”

 

“What?” Jason asks.

 

“He’s in love with Superman,” Steph whispers.

 

“No way,” Jason says. “Really?”

 

“Yeah,” she says. “He as good as told me, once. Apparently Kryptonians don’t have soulmates, so he has no idea.”

 

“Dang,” Jason says. “That’s the best news I’ve heard all day. How does Superbarf have a soulmate, then?”

 

“Probably the human DNA,” Steph says, making things up, although she’s sure Tim knows every single fact about it.

 

“Yeah,” Jason says. “Humans, always messing things up.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Killing, lying, abandoning, hating, breaking hearts,” Jason says. “Giving a Kryptonian a soulmark.”

 

“Yeah,” Steph says. “Humans suck. Maybe we should just be Superman.”

 

\----

 

And Cass comes back. And Steph’s messed up, broken heart _aches._ And Barbara is Batgirl again, and Steph is Spoiler again, and Cass is Orphan--while she was away, she was Black Bat, but she’s changed again.

 

Steph sees Cass, and she’s not sure how to react, and she just stares, and it doesn’t hurt so much to look at her, and Cass walks up to her, and gives her a hug, and it’s familiar territory, and Steph inhales the scent of Cass, and she doesn’t know what’s gonna happen next, but whatever happens will happen.

 

\-----

 

Steph runs away. She runs away from her apartment, away from all her belongings, away from her two roommates and her best friend. She stops, in an alleyway, and she clutches at the bracelet she hasn’t taken off in god knows how long, and she feels hot tears run down her face, and she’s not sure where to go. She presses her eyes shut, if just to try and think, but instead the image of Cass and Harper, wrapped around each other, half-dressed and trading lazy kisses, comes back to her, unbidden. She had walked in, and there they were, on the couch, her roommate and her best friend, and they were soulmates, and she doesn’t know what to do, and she rocks back and forth on her heels. She hugs herself, and cries, and she’s aware that she probably looks like a drug-ridden mess to passers-by, but she doesn’t care.

 

“Stephanie,” a male voice says, and it sounds familiar, and comforting, so she turns toward the person. He holds her, and she smells ink and paper, and something sunshine-y, and her face is pressed against a smooth sort of material, and her tears have greatly obscured her vision, and she’s not sure who’s hugging her, although she has her suspicions. She feels air rush around them, and there’s nothing under her feet, and she clutches at the silky cape, and then there’s ground under her feet again.

 

“Is she okay?” she hears Bruce say, and Superman lets go of her and she stumbles into the middle of the room. “Stephanie?”

 

“Water,” she says, and then Clark’s offering her a glass, and she drains it, taking in her surroundings, wiping her tears. She’s in Bruce’s office.

 

“Stephanie,” Bruce repeats. “What happened?”

 

“It’s fine,” she says, and she sits on the floor. “I’m fine.”

 

“No you aren’t,” Bruce says, and he sounds fondly exasperated. Steph’s not used to him being fond of her.

 

“How did you find me?” she asks Clark, who fidgets.

 

“I was coming over here already,” he says. “I always see what’s wrong with crying people as I pass.”

 

“Why were you coming here?” she asks, and Clark blushes, and Bruce smiles. “Oh! How long--”

 

“Two months, officially,” Bruce says.

 

“Three years, on my end,” Clark says.

 

“Try ten,” Bruce says nonchalantly. Clark gapes at him.

 

“Cass found her soulmate,” Steph says, struggling to keep her voice even. 

 

“Really?” Clark asks, and he sounds happy for her, but Bruce is infinitely more perceptive.

 

“How long?” he asks.

 

“Ever since I’ve known her,” Steph says quietly.

 

“And it’s Harper, isn’t it.” It isn’t a question. Steph nods. Bruce bits his lip. Clark looks confused. “I’ll be back,” Bruce says, and he leaves the room. Steph feels small, suddenly, with just her and Superman in the room.

 

“Can I go change?” Clark asks. “I’ll be right back.”

 

“Take your time,” Steph says, and he nods and walks out of the room, his cape flowing behind him. “Wait!” He turns. “I’m happy for you and Bruce.”

 

“Thank you. I’m sorry about Cass.”

 

“It’s fine,” Steph says, and he looks conflicted, but he leaves the room anyway. She hugs her knees and stares at the grandfather clock.

 

“You can come out,” she says, and she hears feet shuffling.

 

“You were in love with Cain?” Damian asks. Steph nods dully. “Oh.” She can tell he’s standing right behind her. “What about your own soulmate?”

 

“I don’t have one,” Steph says. She’s at the point in her life that, if asked, she’ll tell them. Although she would never tell Tim.

 

“Oh,” Damian says again. He sits next to her.

 

“What about you?” she asks.

 

“None of your business,” he mutters, and she shrugs.

 

“Okay,” she says. And they sit there for a few minutes before he speaks up again.

 

“Are platonic soulmates important? Mother didn’t think so.” Steph turns to look at him, surprised.

 

“Yeah,” she says. “All soulmates are important. Alfred has a platonic soulmate.”

 

“Father?”

 

“Yeah,” Steph says. “And my best friend in middle school had a platonic soulmate, and she was so excited to meet them. But it might change.”

 

“I never said I had a platonic soulmate,” Damian sniffs. “And I don’t want a romantic soulmate anyway.”

 

“Whatever you prefer,” Steph says. They don’t say anything else until Bruce comes back.

 

\----

 

“What are you doing here?” Tim asks, his mouth falling open. Steph cackles at his expression and takes a bite of waffle.

 

“I live here now, Timmy,” she says.

 

“W-why?” he asks.

 

“Does it matter, Drake?” Damian hisses.

 

“It might,” Tim says. “If her apartment blew up or something.”

 

“Nope,” Steph says, feining cheerfulness. “No, my apartment’s fine. Just gonna crash here for a while. I’ll go back.” Damian looks at her, and she can tell he doesn’t believe her. Screw him. She doesn’t believe herself, either, but she can pretend, can’t she?

 

“What happened?” Tim asks.

 

“None of your business,” Steph and Damian say at the same time. Tim frowns at them.

 

“We used to be best friends, Steph, what happened?” he asks as he sits down. Steph flinches. Does he really not know? Her eyes flit over to Damian, who looks angry at him. Oh, so the demon child knows about her heartbreak but the subject of her heartbreak doesn’t?

 

“Nothing happened,” Steph mutters.

 

“Don’t lie,” Tim says, and he sounds weary, and Steph’s suddenly so angry at him, for breaking her heart, for breaking Jason’s, and he has _no idea._

 

“She loved you,” Damian says coldly. Tim looks up, surprised.

 

“I loved you too,” he says. “But what changed?” Steph stands up from her seat.

 

“You _idiot,”_ she hisses, and she leaves the room. She hears footsteps behind her, and she turns and wraps her arms around Damian. He stands stiffly, but he doesn’t try to stab her.

 

“Why are you sticking up for me?” she asks. He pushes her away and crosses his arms.

 

“I’m not,” he says. “I just don’t like Drake.”

 

“Okay,” she says, reluctantly. He’s lying. He shifts on his feet.

 

“I….recently lost my soulmate,” he says, staring at his feet. Steph’s hands go to her mouth. ‘Lost’ could have an infinite number of meanings, but it boils down to that he doesn’t have a soulmate anymore.

 

“I’m so sorry,” she says, and she puts her hand on his shoulder, and he flinches away and leaves the room, and Steph isn’t sure what to do.

 

\-----

 

Steph flicks open her phone. 30 text messages, ten phone calls. She opens up the messages app.

 

Harper: _i’m so sorry omg_

Harper: _pls come back_

Harper: _would it help if i said cullen walked in on us too??_

Harper: _cass says u were in love w/ her_

Harper: _i’m so sorry_

Harper: _i didnt kno i swear!!_

Harper: _pls don’t hate me_

Harper: _tbh i kind hate myself right now_

Harper: _steph??_

Harper: _u ain’t dead, right?_

Harper: _if ur dead im gonna hate myself forever_

Harper: _nvm bg called_

Harper: _she says ur staying w/ bats??_

Harper: _you cab come back_

Harper: * _can_

Harper: _if u want, obvs, im not gonna force u_

Harper: _im so sorry!!!_

 

Cass: _I am so sorry_

Cass: _i_ _t was a mistake_

Cass: _we should have told you before_

Cass: _please forgive Harper_

Cass: _you don’t have to forgive me for being stupid but don’t blame Harper_

Cass: _I feel so bad right now_

Cass: _Babs says you’re with Bruce_

Cass: _Tim lives there_

Cass: _are you okay??_

Cass: _you don’t have to come back if you don’t want but you don’t have to stay with Tim, either_

Cass: _I’m sorry_

Cass: _I miss you_

 

Steph smiles faintly at the messages and taps out a group chat.

 

Steph: _omg_

Steph: _i’m okay yo i just needed a little recovery_

 

Harper: _u gonna come back??_

 

Steph: _not sure yet_

Steph: _i’m currently @ nightwing’s house_

 

Harper: _what about bats?_

 

Steph: _wasn’t working out_

Steph: _red robin’s stupid_

 

Cass: _I’m so sorry_

 

Steph: _I forgive you_

Steph: _both of you_

 

Harper: _i swear i didn’t know!!_

 

Steph: _i believe you!!_

Steph: _i’m just working thru some junk_

 

Cass: _take as much time as you need_

 

Harper: _yeah_

 

Steph: _don’t worry i’ll keep in touch!!_

 

Cass: _:)_

 

Harper: _good_

 

\-----

 

Steph stares at her wrist. She has no idea how long it’s been since she’s looked underneath it. Her hand finds the catches, slips it off.

 

She stares at her wrist in shock, and falls off the bed.

 

“You okay in there?” Dick yells from outside her guest room.

 

“Fine!” Steph calls, breathless, and she stares at her wrist again, at the blue mark there.

 

She has a soulmate.

 

She has a _soulmate._

 

_She has a soulmate._

 

A bunch of things connect all at once, and she jumps to her feet.

 

“Dick!” she yells.

 

“What?” She runs out of the room and waves her bare wrist around. “I have a soulmate!”

 

“That’s fantastic!” he says. She runs to him and he hugs her.

 

“I won’t be alone,” she says, giddy.

 

“You never were,” Dick says firmly. “We wouldn't have let you be.”

 

“I know,” Steph says, then she smiles. “But still!” Dick grabs her wrist and inspects it.

 

“Platonic, huh? Do you know who it is?” Steph nods.

 

“I’ll go talk to them in a minute,” she says. Then she does a little dance, uncontrollably excited, and she skips back to her room.

 

She takes a picture of her wrist and sends it to Cass and Harper, then a separate chat to Bruce then Jason.

 

Harper: _omg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

Harper: _omg!!!!_

 

Cass: _I’m so happy for you!!!_

 

Steph: _I’m happy for me too!!_

 

Cass: _know who it is yet?_

 

Steph: _yeah_

Steph: _gonna find him in a mo_

 

Harper: _good luck!!!_

 

Steph: _thanks!!!!_

  


Jason: _ooh, good luck blondie_

 

Steph: _:D_

 

  
Bruce: _Congratulations._

 

Steph: _thanks!!_

Steph: _can you tell clark? he seemed worried about me_

 

Bruce: _He says that he’s happy for you._

 

Steph: _i’m so happy omg_

 

Bruce: _That’s good._

Bruce: _You’ll have to tell me who it is._

Bruce: _So I can catalog your weaknesses_

 

Steph: _I will_

Steph: _later_

Steph: _for now i must go to my knight in shining armor, to confess my platonic love for him and we can ride away on a rainbow, flying into the sunset_

 

Bruce: _Have fun with….that._

 

Steph: _you know what b? I will_

 

\-----

 

Steph scales the side of the manor and taps on the window, then pushes it open, tumbling inside.

 

“What are you doing here, Fatgirl?” Damian hisses. He’s on his bed with his art stuff. It looks like he’s been sketching Titus.

 

“I’m your soulmate,” she says, and he freezes.

 

“Why would you say that?” he asks.

 

“I told you I didn’t have one, then you told me you lost yours.”

 

“So?”

 

“So I’m sorry,” she says simply. He gapes at her.

 

“What?”

 

“I’m sorry I hadn’t checked under my bracelet in a while, and I’m sorry I hurt you.”

 

“What do you mean?” he asks suspiciously. Steph holds up her bare wrist, showing off the blue mark. His eyes widen.

 

“You--”

 

“Yeah,” she says. “I’m sorry I didn’t know before.” Damian gets up on his bed and walks over to her. He’s taller than her by standing on the mattress.

 

“This changes nothing,” he says.

 

“Nothing except telling your dad that you’re my platonic soulmate,” she says.

 

“Why would you do that?” Damian asks.

 

“Because he wants to catalogue our weaknesses or something,” she says.

 

“He’s never asked me to tell him,” Damian said. “Probably because he knows I have no weaknesses.”

 

“Or because he was dead when you became Robin,” Steph says, raising an eyebrow. Damian frowns at her.

 

“I am still going to call you Fatgirl,” he announces.

 

“You should really switch nicknames, I’m not Batgirl anymore.”

 

“You are to me,” he mutters and she smiles. He points at her.

 

“This still doesn’t change anything!”

 

\----

And no, nothing changes.

 

Nothing except them teaming up together, as Spoiler and Robin. 

 

Nothing except them learning how to fight with each other at their back, how to trust.

 

Nothing except Steph, going with Damian to meet the Teen Titans, and her making some really good friends while he learns about teamwork. 

 

Nothing except Damian, crawling into Steph's bed when he has nightmares. 

 

Nothing except Steph, going as his date to Wayne galas, just so the reporters get off his back. 

 

Nothing except Damian, meeting Crystal Brown and her calling him the "son she never had".

 

Nothing except Bruce, patting Steph's back and telling her he's proud of her. 

 

Nothing except Damian learning to listen to Steph, while they jump on a moonbounce and she vents. 

 

And Steph, treating Damian to ice cream after patrols. 

 

And Damian growing taller than her, and he teases her mercilessly while she pretends to cry about it. 

 

And the two of them, picking out a cat together and naming her Minerva, in honor of the great and powerful Minerva McGonagall of Harry Potter, which Steph forced Damian to read. 

 

And Damian moves out of the manor and right into an apartment with Steph, and they lay on the living room floor together, their pinkies linked, and Damian says that he's happy, and Steph agrees.

 

Of course, they still bicker.

 

He always calls her "Fatgirl".

 

"Demon Brat" is a common comeback, even when Damian finally becomes Batman. 

 

So no, nothing changes at all. 

 

Except for everything. 

 

(But not Steph's soulmark.)

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> steph was unaware about Damian being her soulmate because she didn't know she had a soulmate. Damian knew from the very beginning, but he didn't know how to tell her this. 
> 
> thanks for reading! hope you enjoyed :)
> 
> comments/kudos are always loved
> 
> edit: i made this anon bc i don't like it as much anymore. it's a little problematic and i would've written it very very differently if i was making this now. it's possible i'll step up and rewrite the jason bits, but don't get your hopes up.


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